This diary was partially inspired by a comment made by Gladov in Southern Son's diary today, where he quoted Yoda:
"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering"
While, rest assured, I had not seen the relevant movie (preferring to rerun "The Deer Hunter" obsessively, along with Emir Kusturica films) it did get me thinking about fear and how fear informs our attitudes and choices.
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There is no one telling us "All we have to fear, is fear itself."
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Instead, our "leaders" either cultivate fear or succumb to the fact that its cultivation has raised bounty crops.
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I was priveleged enough to go to a fabulous high school, where there was an option of taking specialized literature classes, instead of doing the basic freshman, sophmore, junior, senior prescribed literature.
And in one of those alternate courses, we read Alan Paton's "Cry the Beloved Country"
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I stand puzzled to understand why I do not hear about this book so much, anymore. It is one of the most beautiful books ever written, on a terribly excruciating premise: A native South African man has to deal with the fact his son killed a white person, and is tried, convicted and given the death sentence. It was written in 1948, when there was not a clue as to when apartheid would ever end.
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The centerpiece paragraph in the book has rested in my mind since first reading it at age 16; at odd moments throughout my life, I find myself mentally reciting it:
"Cry the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheiritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much."
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Sometimes I sense we are all in a bubble, and that we scarcely realize the enormity of the struggle we have before us to return our country to its promise. I think it will require more than strategic election wins; it will require utter devotion to the cause.
I was reading Jane Mayer's New Yorker article on Addington today, and was impressed with someone's comments that they felt "safer" with Addington at the helm. I do not believe Addington, et al, are not sincere in their desire for safety, but I think they are completely blind to the cost.
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The face of dubya on 9/11 in that Florida school, is of someone in absolute shock.A shock he never recovered from. A shock that made him entirely vulnerable, a vaccuum that let in to giving reign to the basest impulses of defense mechanisms.
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He led this country into acting like animals.
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do not go gentle into that good night, folks. safety is a womb, but life is letting our fingers get wet, and loving the sunsets as only a human can do.